Gender and crime Flashcards
(39 cards)
What functionalists discuss gender and crime?
Sutherland (sex role theory)
Parsons (Instrumental/expressive role, status anxiety)
What is sex role theory?
- Boys and girls are socialised differently, resulting in boys committing more crime.
- Sutherland stated that girls are more supervised, and taught to be domesticated and passive.
- Boys are encouraged to take risks, be tough, and aggressive. If women become deviant it is because of how they’re socialised (tomboys, having brothers)
Who talks about sex role theory?
Functionalists Sutherland & Parsons
What does Parsons say about gender?
- In the family, fathers perform the ‘instrumental’ role (leader, provider), while mothers perform the ‘expressive’ role (emotional support, socialising children)
- Girls have more access to their role model (mother) as fathers tend to work more.
- This leads young males to experience ‘status anxiety’ and cannot identify with the correct sex, meaning exaggerated masculine behaviour and frustration can happen, leading to delinquency.
What three people discuss the biological explanation for gender differences in crime?
Lambroso (intelligence, ‘born criminal’)
Thomas (personalities, approval)
Pollak (hormones, chivalry)
What does Lambroso discuss?
- Women show natural passivity, not possessing enough intelligence or initiative to break the law.
- Women who were ‘born criminal’ show masculine traits and lack maternal instinct.
What does Thomas discuss?
- Men and women have different personality traits. Women are more passive and men are more active.
- Women require more social approval and affection than men. Women get this through domestic roles so middle class women choose to accept this.
- Poor females lack socialisation and morality, refuse to take on the submissive role, and use their sexuality for emotional gain.
How is the biological explanation for gender and crime criticised?
- Ignore economic issues poor women face.
- Rely too much on biblical myth that women are scheming and manipulative.
Who are the feminist sociologists that discuss gender and crime?
Smart (strict socialisation)
Carlen
What are the feminist explanations for crime and deviance?
- Women are more controlled.
- Crime can be seen as ‘role expressive’ for men, as it is an extension of the male role of protector and dominant aggressor. For women it is ‘role distorting’ as it goes against their expected role of nurturer and carer.
- (Heidensohn- ‘Double deviant’, control)
‘unfeminine’
Who discusses women being ‘prisoners of their own home’?
Smart
What does Smart discuss?
- Girls have stricter socialisation.
- They are controlled through how often they can go out, where to go and who with, and there are more fears about their safety.
- This leads to girls being ‘prisoners of their own home’.
What does Carlen say in relation to what women commit crime?
- Women who commit crime are usually brought up in a situation that does not reinforce gender roles. (being in care)
- They feel they don’t have much to loose and the crime outweighs the benefits of being a woman.
What sociologists discuss the changes in rates of female criminality?
- Adler (female liberation)
- Chesney-Lind (economy)
- Gelsthorpe (sentencing policy)
What does Adler recognise/discuss?
- With the rise of female liberation, women are out in the public sphere more, meaning there are fewer restrictions leading to more crime.
- There has been a change in expected female behaviour through adopting male values like being hard and risk taking. (laddettes)
- However, crime rates for men are still significantly higher. (women only 4% of prison population in 2021)
What did Chesney-Lind discuss?
- Poor women are more likely to be criminals than ‘liberated’ middle class women showing it is more down to economic and social situations than liberation.
- Even though there are now more women in male offences like drugs, it is usually male partners/family members that got them into it.
Who discussed how poor women are more likely to be criminals compared to ‘liberated’ middle class women?
Chesney-Lind
What does Gelsthorpe discuss?
The increase of women in prisons could be down to a shift in sentencing policy and a decline in ‘chivalry’/ how society perceive women more than women’s liberation and how they see themself.
Who talks about the increase in women in prisons?
Gelsthorpe
What does Pollak say about gender and crime?
- Men do not commit more crime. It is caused by ’chivalry’ within the Criminal Justice System, meaning lenient treatment.
- Women are biologically more deviant as they can conceal their menstruation, fake orgasms, and pretend to take a passive role.
- Women are compelled to commit certain crimes due to their hormones/menstrual cycle causing emotional disturbance and low self esteem.
- Women manipulate men to commit more crime for them.
Who talks about women being manipulative and deceitful, but get away with it due to chivalry?
Pollak
How can Pollak’s argument be critiqued?
Most of this argument lacks evidence in saying women ‘get away’ with their offences
What is chivalry thesis?
- The male dominated Criminal Justice System has a paternalistic attitude towards women, seeing them as vulnerable, childlike, and not fully responsible for their actions.
- This may lead to the police giving females warnings/cautions, and judges treating them more leniently.
What evidence is there to show chivalry thesis?
Speed and Burrows: in shoplifting cases, male offenders were twice as likely to receive a sentence than women (30% compared to 15%)
